E449 
.S723 



; 





.<^^^ -u.. 












•^oo'* 



°6^ 



^ 

-^^ 



A v^ 



V9- 













3°^ 








X^ " ^ 


N ° ' 


* * /-^ 


o 






V 


.^^ 




' ' ,^ 


.>> 




.-/ 


^^ 






I v\ 



%■ 






■>- <^:;-'' ''■^' 












•^c 



V' 



,^^'% 




* 



















^°°-_ -X^- .^-^-^^ V 



WHY WORK FOR THE SLAVE? 



Beloved Sisters : 

You have engaged in labor for the perishing. Let no dif 
Mties turn you back. Surely, woes and wrongs unutterable w [j 
move the heart of woman. Woes unutterable I Do you doubt i 7 

in mat btate m 1830, speaKuig of the slaves there, said • 

atXe fn^n^"- "^'^'^'^^^ -^^^ries, th. horrors of sTavery^o burst 
at^once into view, a peal of seven-fold thunder could scarce strL greater 

What must be the anguish of those who feel the iron enter their 
own souls when a few^/a„c.. at the process, could export sue 
language from a slaveholder ? "'^'^ 

When you are met with the objection that the free states havp 
nothmg to do with slavery, point to the fresh grave of LoveTov 
whose murderers walk the streets at noon.day,^defying ^'ellw' 

■ men 3""° '' '' '''"' ^"^ ''''' ^" ^>^^ state.'^'Say thft northeTn 
men and women go every year to the South, and become slave 
holders, and that not a few who remain among us, hold slaves and 
grow rich on their unrequited toil * > ioia staves, and 

When told that woman should not meddle with slavery, point to 
.he widow of Lovejoy, left alone to rear her fatherless chfld, and 
l^n' h 'V ^,^""t!-y ^'^here slavery strews with desolation a wo- 

ZTltT r '' ^'"f""'' ^^^"^^" ^« «^^^ f°r the cause, and if 
possible to apply a remedy. ' 

You have the authority of slaveholders for concerning yourselves 
even with pohtics. At a political meeting in Mississip^pf ast fdl 
the following toast was drank : ^ ' 

nnhll^«!^^*^if''"^''u''^ "^^^'^ ^'°"^ of °"r revolutionary struggle thev 

r«ZT^ -.ry brothers, husbands and sons may at any time be 
calle d, with deadly w eaponyto^ ush, if possib lc/the liberty seek! 



Z A GIBL KIDNAPPED AT WASHINGTON. 

jng slaves, and thus fight against Jehovah,* will not you, in the 
spirit of love, strive for their peaceful release? 

While vv^oman, at our national slave-market, is robbed of her 
children, can northern women look on in silence? And when 50 
northern Representatives, with ears closed to that mother's wail, 
vote that your petitions for her shall NOT BE READ, will you 
not redouble your efforts to save your children from slavery? 

When you are keenly afflicted by meeting coldness, apathy and 
indifference, then offer to lend the Narrative of Charles Ball, the 
Ohio Report, or some other publication, where the slave speaks for 
himself. Tell the story of Mary Brown, of Ohio, who was stolen 
from her free parents in Washington City. The committee who 
prepared the Ohio Report, of which A. Wattles was chairman, say 
they are assured by those who knew Mary at the South, that her 
statements may be implicitly relied on. Her manner, in telling her 
story, was artless and simple, bespeaking conscious truth. 

-•' She lived with her parcn's until the death of her mother ; she was 
then seized and sold. One day, when near the Potomac bridge, Mr. 
Humphreys the sheriff, overtook her, and told her she must fro 
with him. She inquired of him what for? He made no reply, but loJd 
her to come along. He took her immediately to a slave auction. Mary 
told Mr. Humphreys that she was free, but he contradicted her, and 
the sale went on. The auctioneer soon found a purchaser, and struck 
ner off for three hundred and fif y dollars, to a Mississippi trader, 
and she was taken directly to the jail. After a few hours, she was 
handcuffed, chaine'i to a man slave, and started in a drove of abom 
forty for New-Orleans. The handcuffs made her wrists swell so that 
they were obliged to take them off at night, and put fetters on her ankles. 
In the morning the handcuffs were again put on. Thus they traveled 
for two weekS) wading rivers, and whipped up all day, being beaten at 
night, if they did not get their distance. Mary says that she frequently 
waded rivers ia her chains, with water up to her waist. It was m Oc- 
tober, and the weather cold and frosiy. 

''After traveUng thus twelve or fifteen days, her arms and ankles be- 
came so swoUru that she felt she could go no farther. Bhsters would 
form on her feet as large as dollars, which at night she would have to 
open, while all day the shackles would cut into her lacerated wrists. 
They had no beds, and usually slera in barns, or out on the naked 
ground — was in such misery when she lay down that she could only 
he and cry all night. Still they drove them on for another week. Her 
spirits became so depressed, and she grieved so much about leaving her 
friends, that she could not eat, and every time the trader caught her 
crying, he would beat her, accompanying it with dreadful curses. 

"Mary at length became so weak, that she could travel no farther. 
Her frame was exhausted and sunk beneath her sufferings. She was 
seized with a burning fever, and the trader, fearing he should lose her, 
carried her the remainder of the way in a wagon. 

" When they arrived at Natchez they were all offered for sale, and as 
Mary was still sick, she begged that she might be sold to a kind master. 
She sometimes made this request in presence of purchasers — but was 
always insulted for it, and after they were gone the trader punished her 
for such presumption in revealing her sickness, and thus preventing 
her sale. On one occasion he tied her up by her hands so that 

* " The Almighty has no attribute which can take aides with us in such a cou- 
test." — Jefferson. 



A WOMAN ENSLAVED IN ALGIERS. 3 

she could only touch the end of her toes to the floor. This was 
soon after breakfast ; he kept her thus suspended, whipping her at in- 
tervals through the day— at evening he took her down. She was so 
much bruised that she could not lie down for more than a week after- 
wards." 

The rest of her history while a slave is full of horror. Her case 
differs little from thousands, except that she escaped to reveal her 
woes, while they suffer and die unheard. 

^ Mention the c ; se of Burditt Washington, as further proof that all 
•protection is withheld from our colored sisters, within sight of our 
national Capitol, while Congress shout to the slave-trader, "Here's 
free plunder ?" 

One of the nine children sold away from him, was a daughter 
about eighteen. A slavetrader came to the house, seized and car- 
ried her aboard the steamboat. The aged father followed. " I then 
went into the hold," said he, " and found my child among the other 
slaves. She threw her arms about my neck and said, ' Father, I'm 
gone, can't you do something for me V I could'nt stay there any 
longer. I broke away from her." Here the old man's tears stopped 
his voice. After sometime, he said : " I have not seen or heard of 
her since. Oh, it hurts me every time I think of it." 

I had this from his own lips. He was a member of a Baptist 
church in Alexandria. Rev. Spencer H. Cone, and Rev. Samuel 
Cornelius, his pastor, testified to the excellence of his character. 

If such a crime had been committed upon George Washington, 
would it have been more wicked ? Would not every voice execrate 
a Congress which would not hear Am, or his friends, asking for 
relief? God is no respecter of persons. Are we like him ? 

To seal up every caviling mouth, quote testimony fresh from the 
oppressor's lips. See A. S. Record, for Jan. 1837 ; Evils and Cure 
of Slavery, by Mrs. Child ; A. S. Almanac for 1838, &c. 

We may enter into the feelings of a slave by reading the story 
of Maria Martin, an American woman, enslaved in Algiers. In 
1800, she embarked for Cadiz, and when almost there, was seized, 
carried to Algiers, and placed, alone, in a little dirty hut. Here 
she exclaims, " Gracious God! what were my feelings at this mo- 
ment ! In a fit of despair I seized the knife, and should have killed 
myself, had I not taken time for a moment's reflection." 

After several years, the mate of the vessel she sailed in sue- 
ceeded in getting, with her, on board a ship starting for London. 
The coast of Algiers was fading from her sight, when the wind 
changed. The ship was driven back. She says: "I could dis- 
tmctly hear the yells of the barbarians on shore, and soon heard the 
motion of oars alongside. I fainted, and recovered, but to find my. 
self once more in the power of my unfeeling enemies. They bound 
the mate and myself hand and foot, and carried us on shore." 

The mate was doomed to a cruel death. She was chained in a 
dismal cell, where she says : " The little sleep I could have, may 
be supposed. My body and mind sunk under suffering, and I fell 
ill of a burning fever. Sickness itself is sufficient to humble the 
mightiest mind : what then is sickness with this addition of tor- 
ment ? The fever, the headaches, my neck swelled and inflamed 



4 AMERICAN SLAVERY WOESE THAN ALGEBINE. 

with the irons enraged me almost to madness. The remembrance 
of my sufferings at that dreadful moment still agitates, still inflames 
my blood." 

She was confined there two years. Think of her sufferings and 
then ponder well the testimony of Gen. Eaton. In a letter to his 
wife, dated April 6, 1799, he speaks thus of the slaves in the Bar- 
bary States : 

"Many of them have died of grief, and the others linger out a life less 
tolerable than death. Alas ! remorse seizes my whole soul, when I re- 
flect, that this is indeed but a copy of the barbarity which my eyes have 
seen in my own native country. * * * Indeed, truth and justice 
demand from me the confession that the Christian slaves among the 
barbarians of Africa are treated with MORE HUMANITY than the 
African slaves among the professing Christians of civilized America." 

What is American slavery, when he thus speaks of the recollec- 
tion of it while in sight of his friends and countrymen in chains I 

The following is from the Rutherford Gazette, a paper printed 
in the v/estern part of North Carolina, and copied into the Southern 
Citizen, of Sept. 23, 1837: 

" Suicide. The negro woman, [Lucy] confined in our jail as a run- 
away, put an end to her existence on the 28th ult. by hanging herself. 
Her master came to this place the day on which it occurred, and going 
to the jail, was recognized by the w^onian as her master. He had !elt 
the jail but a short time, when it was discovered that the woman had 
destroyed herself We have never known an instance where so much 
firmness was exhibited by any person, as was by this negro. The place 
from which she suspended herself was not high enough to pievent her 
feet from touching the floor, and it was only by drawing her legs up and 
remaining in that position, that she succeeded in her determined pur- 
pose." 

Lucy was, in effect, murdered by slavery. She cannot now de- 
scribe to us the horrors from which she tried to escape, nor speak 
of the apprehension and despair which impelled her, thus, to seek. 
the "king of terrors" as a shelter from American slavery. 

The following facts, it will be seen, are from recent Southern 
papers. See what merchandize they offer for sale, with no allusion 
to complexion. A stranger might, think the flesh-merchant was 
dealing in his own brothers and sisters. 

FOR SALE, A WOMAN, about 24 years of age, with her chiW, 6 
years old. also. 

Wanted to purchase, a BOY from 17 to 20 years old. Apply, &c. 
Augusta (Geo.) Constitutionalist, Oct. 12, 1837. 

BY THOMAS X. GADSDEIV. 

TO-MORROW, the 24th inst. will be sold 
A prime Young Fellow, named ISAAC, 18 years old, belonging to 
the Estate of John Carsten, deceased. Conditions cash. 
Under the head of ''Auction Sales;' in the Charlestcm (S. C.) Courier, Nov. 23,1837. 

What havoc was wrought in Virginia to procure the merchandize 
offered in the following notice : 

The Subscribers, residing in Hamburgh, South Carolina, have just 
received a new supply of likely Virginia SLAVES, House servants, 
Cooks, Washers and Ironers, Mechanics and Field Hands. 

JOSEPH WOODS & CO. 
[Chronicle and Sentiael, Augusta, (Geo.) Oct, 12, 1837. 



ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY. » 

In the Norfolk Beacon, (Va.) Nov. 18, 1837, is a notice, headed : 

" Cook and Washerwoman at Auction." 
She is said to be " 35 to 40 years of age, sold for no fault," and 
it is added, " the purchaser will be required not to send her away, 
her OWNER not wishing to separate her from her husband." 

NASH & CO., Auct'rs. 
What if the required agreement is broken ? " On the side of the 
oppressor there is power" and he who can hold a woman as pro- 
perty can hold his word as property. Within a week she might be 
taken from her husband, and driven frantic to the slave market. 
Or, perchance, she might escape from her tormentors, on the way, 
and be advertised in the style of the following : 

[From the New Orleans Bee, Oct. 28, 1837.] 
$10 REWARD. 
RAN AWAY on the 9th of October, CAROLINE, aged about 38 
years, had a COLLAR on with one prong turned down, she had a sore 
on her left shin. T. CUGGY, 

Gallatin st. between Hospital and Barracks. 
And we may hear of her husband thus : 
^t "S d~ktf^ REWARD.— Ranaway from, &c. a negro man named 
^ JL ^Ur xl^ WILEY, about 37 or 38 years of age— one of his fore- 
fingers has been injured. It is possible that he will make his way to 
Tennessee, where he says he has a wife. J. C CABINESS. 

[Alabama State Intelligencer, Tuscaloosa, Oct. 16, 1837. 
Or thus : 

'AS committed to Jail 

•^ JTJEGMO Jfl^Jl' 
who says that his name is 

Said BOY is about 30 years old, light complexion and 
bald head ; has a scar on his left knee ; also, one on 
his forehead, and one on his right hand ; he is VERY 
MUCH MARKED WITH THE WHIP. 
The owner, &c. B. W. HATCH, Jailor. 

[Port Gibson (Mi.) Correspondent, Sept. 16, 1837. 

Here we see a woman driven by slavery to take her three child- 
ren and run away from her tormentor and their father. 




w 




R 



$30 Reward. 



ANAWAY from the Subscriber my Negro Wo- 
man, Betsey Merrick, with her three children, 
Edward, Mai garet Ann, and Caroline. Said Betsey 
is of dark complexion, her children are Mulattoes. — 
Her youngest is an infant. 

The above reward will be given on her delivery to 
me, or being lodged in any jail where I can get her 
and her children; and an extra sum of S30 for the conviction of any 
whre person or persons harboring them. W. A. LANGDON. 

[Wilmington (N. C.) Advertiser, Nov. 10, 1837. 

Would you know the anguish of this fugitive ? Think of a fe- 
male slave in Algiers, fleeing with three children to the Atlantic 
coast, — lurking in thickets by day, and groping westward by night, 

1* 



5 MEN BEAEISTG THE MASKS OF SLAVERY. 

snatching her scanty food from the woods and fields, and avoiding 
human beings with more care than she does the serpents and tigers. 
The American slave starts with the certainty that, if taken, his 
misery will be greatly increased. 

The following is from a paper with this motto : " Equal and ex- 
act justice to all men of whatever state, religion or persuasion." 
What must be the public feeling where a woman felt no shame m 
putting it forth with her name at the bottom ? 

^40 REWARD. 

MANAWAY from my residence near Mobile, two negro men, Isaac 
and Tim ; Isaac is from 25 to 30 years old, dark complexion, scar 
on the right side of the head, and also one on the right side of the body 
occasioned by BUCK SHOT. Tim is 22 years old, dark complexion, 
scar on the right cheek, as also another on the back of the neck. Cap- 
tains and owners of Steamboats, Vessels, and water Crafts of every 
description, are cautioned against taking them on board under the pen- 
alty of the law, and all other persons againtt harboring or in any man- 
ner favoring the escape of said negroes under hke penalty. 
Mobile, Sept. 1. SARAH WALSH. 

[Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, Sept. 29, 1837, 

What must be the feeling towards slaves where those who assist 
these wounded men to escape are punished with pains and penalties i 
The following are from the same paper : 

COMMITTED* 

TO the Jail of Pike county, a man about twenty-three or four years 
old, who calls his name John ; the said negro has a clog of iron 
on his right foot which will weigh 4 or 5 pounds. The owner is request- 
ed. &c. B. W. HODGES, Jailor. 

S20 Reward. 

M ANA WAY from the subscriber, a negro man named Moses, he is 
of common size, about 23 years old. He formerly belonged to 
J^tcige Benson of Montgomery, and it is said has a wife in that county. 

JOHN GAYLE. 
A judge selling a man away from his wife ! 
The Huntsville (Ala.) Democrat has this motto : " Unawed by 
the influence of the rich or the great, THE PEOPLE must be heard 
and their rights vindicated." What sweet music to the foreigner 
seeking refuge from the despotisms of Europe ! Beneath that motto 
he might read : 

THE undersigned will, on the first Monday in December next, ex- 
pose to public sale a likely and valuable blacksmith [a mulatto,] 
October 18, 1837. WM. MaTKINS, Trustee. 

[Democrat, Oct. 31, 1837. 

In the same paper, G. W. Fennel advertises that Jacob had just 
escaped the third time in 12 months. What longings for liberty ! 

Here, in a Mobile paper, a man who will give but ^10 for a wo- 
man, offers $200 for the privilege of revenging himself on any one 
who shows her a kindness. 

TEIV DOI.L.ARS RE^VARD. 

MANAWAY from the subscriber, a negro girl named POLLY. The 
above reward will be paid for her apprehension and delivery to 
th.^, subscriber — or S200 if found harbored by any white man, so that the 
fuct can be proved. J. B. WALKER, Water st. 



TRADE IN HUMAN BEINGS. / 

A few days ago, while you were happy in your quiet families, 
the following sale took place in Mississippi : 

GUARDIAST'S SALE. 

WILL be offered at Public Auction, on tlie premises, one mile from 
Port Gibson, on Monday, 15th January next, 43 likely SLAVES, 
mostly between the ages of 16 and 25, all acclimated— Among them is 
a good Wagoner and two house Servants; the balance well trained to 
the planting business, and are first rate Cotton pickers. * * * Will 
be put up in families, or individually, to suit purchasers. 

R. H. BAYLY, Guardian of the 
Sept. 26, 1837. person and estate of Joseph McVoy. 

[Grand Gulf (Mi.) Advertiser, Oct. 21, 1837. 
While southern "guardians" thus proclaim the hardness of their 
hearts, let us feel ourselves the guardians of the slave. 

The following, from the same paper, shows how laborers are re- 
garded as things, and robbed of their wages : 

Eiglit or ten Bricklayers 

ARE wanted immediately at Grand Gulf, FOR WHICH S2 50 per 
. day will be given. H. T. PALMER. Oct. 7. 

Can cruelty be rare, where men put their names to such procla- 
mations of their own barbarity, as the following? 
^k ^^^ REWARD.— Ranaway from the subscriber, a negro fel- 
C^^^^-F low named DICK, about 21 or 22 years of age, dark mu- 
latto, has MANY SCARS on his back from being WHIPPED. The 
boy was ptirchased by me from Thomas L. Arnold, and absconded 
about the time the purchase was made. JAMES NOE. 

[Sentinel and Expositor, Vicksburg, (Mi.) Oct. 10, 1837. 

Several advertisements describe females with scars in their faces. 
One mentions a woman who had escaped with 10 children, but I 
have not room for more of these horrid details. Each of the slaves 
advertised in all the southern states may have a history which, if 
known, would move the hardest heart. 

Here is a wholesale dealer in misery. I have put other words 

for "negroes," and printed ihem in ITALIC CAPITALS. 

Though the change makes it sound worse, it is the same thing in 
different words. 

/ijr^iV AND WOMAN BROKER.— The subscriber offers 
his services in purchasing and selling HUMAN BEINGS. 
The facihties of which he is in possession — warrant a belief that he will 
give general satisfaction in selecting such as are ordered from Maryland, 
Virginia, North CaroUna, South Carolina and Georgia, to this city, 
New Orleans and Natchez, having a general acquaintance and regular 
correspondence with gentlemen in the markets where MEN, WO- 
MEN and CHILDREN are bought as well as where they are sold- 
Per.sons desirous of selling, will please call. A. F. EDWARDS. 
[Mobile Morning Chronicle, Oct. 12, 1837. 

The dates show that he had carried on this business nearly a 
year. Speaking of the internal slave-trade, a Virginian legislator 
asks, if it is not worse than the foreign slave-trade, and says : 

" Here, individuals v/hom the master has known from infancy.whom 
he has seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood, who have 



A FEW OF THE ADVERTISED FACTS. 

been accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears from the 
mother^s arms, and SELLS into a strange country, among strange 
people, subject to CRUEL TASK-MASTERS. In my opinion, sir, it 
IS MUCH WORSE."— Speech, of Thomas J. Randolph, of Albemarle, 
in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1832. 

If there was but one victim to this trade, it should arouse the 
nation. The number who suffer can never be known. The Vir- 
ginia Times, printed at Warrenton, Va. , speaks thus of the trade 
m 1836 : 

" We have heard intelligent men estimate the number of slaves ex- 
ported from Virginia, within the last twelve months, at 120,000. 
Not more than one third have been sold, the others having been car- 
ried by their owntrs who have removed." 

In 72 papers, printed in 1837, I find advertised, 270 persons try- 
ing to escape from slavery, besides a lot of an unknown number. 
48 of these were females, and 18 were children and youth less than 
14 years old. 44 of the men, and 7 of the women were described 
as scarred, 22 had been brought from distant markets, and in 13 
cases it is said that families were separated. Four men and two 
women had IRONS on, or were much marked with irons. The ages 
of the fugitives vary from 6 months to 60 years. Six men and one 
woman who said they were free, were imprisoned, and to be sold 
if they could not prove their freedom.* Two men were marked 
with SHOT, and one was BRANDED. One man gave permission 
to KILL his slave. Think of such a case. God speaks, amid the 
thunders of Sinai : " Thou shalt not kill." The slaveholder 
answers, amid bloody whips and rattling chains : " You may kill 
that man, because he tries to he free,'" Eight slaves (6 men and 2 
women,) were in the habit of running away, or had escaped more 
than once. 

In the same papers, 1525 persons, of whom 179 are said to be 
females, and 100 children, are mentioned for sale, besides 41 lots 
of human beings, number not stated: 559 persons and 40 lots are to 
be sold because their masters or mistresses have died. When told 
how slaves weep around the death-beds of their masters, mention 
the fact that a single paper, [Columbus (Geo.) Enquirer, Nov. 16, 
1837,] contains notices for 21 such sales. One man, one woman, 
and one little girl 6 years old, offered in three sales of this kind, 
are said to be sickly, yet they must be sold beneath the hammer to 
any who would buy. In one such sale a claim to an eighth part of 
five slaves is offered. 

These 72 papers were very far from being the worst I might 
have selected. Many of them were from small towns in Maryland, 
Va., and N. C. Yet think over the amount of wo to which they are 
an index. More than 500 papers, (including dailies,) are printed in 
the southern states each week, or 26,000 in a year. These 72 
were therefore less than a three hundredth part of the southern 
papers published in 1837. How large a part of the actual adver- 
tised facts of the year they contain cannot be safely estimated. If 

''In mostof the slave states, any colored persons, not having free papers at hand, 
may be imprisoned, and if, while in prison, they do not prove their freedom, they 
are sold to pay the expenses of the unjust imprisonment. 



A WOMAN SCAEBED : — A MAN I» rBONS. 9 

we multiply these facts by 20, it will evidently be but a small part 
of the reality, yet it gives the following result : 



5400 fugitives, of whom 
960 are females, and 
360 children. 

30 WOMEN with YOUNG CHILDBEN. 

880 men scakred, 

140 WOMEN SCARRED. 

260 separations of families. See 
80 men in IRONS. [p. 5. 

40 WOMEN IN IRONS. 
40 men marked with SHOT. 
20 men BRANDED. 



20 LICENCES TO KILL. 

30500 persons advertised/or sale, & 

820 LOTS of human beings, do. 
3580 mentioned as females. 
2000 children. 

900 women with young children. 
8400 persons sold in estates of de- 
ceased slaveholders. 

800 LOTS of persons, do. 

880 persons sold by the sheriff, &- 
13400 by auctioneers. 



If such are a small part of the incidents advertised by slavehold- 
ers in a year, the inquiry comes home to our hearts, What can we 
do this year, and every year, for those who are thus bought and sold, 
lorn from the places of their birth, driven from market to marker, 
parted from dearest relatives, mangled with whips, imprisoned, 
branded, shot, and given up to murderers ? 

Do you ask, if these facts are unusually horrible ? Then read this. 

TEN DOLLARS REWARD will be given for my negro woman 
named Liby or Lucy, as she sometimes calls herself The said 
Libyis about 30 years old, and VERV MUCH SCARRED ABOUT 
THE NECK AND EARS occasioned by WHIPPING, had on an old 
plaid cloak, with a handkerchief tied round her ears, as she commonly 
wears ii-'to hide the scars. ROBERT NICOLL, 

bee. 29, 1835. Dauphin st. between Emanuel and Conception. 

[Mobile (Ala.) Commercial Advertiser. 

Is this an extreme case ? James G, Birney, a native of Kentucky, 
once a slaveholder, now, by the power of anti-slavery truth, an 
advocate of immediate emancipation, on reading the above, said it 
was not strange to him. He resided nearly sixteen years in the 
same state in which Robert Nicoll could put his name and residence 
to such an advertisement, and then walk the streets of Mobile, 
glorying in the protection of law and the sanction of public opinion. 
He says the women who are field hands are nearly all scarred with the 
whip, — that, in the ^Za/ifzVi^ states, about one third of the field hands 
are females, — that, when sold, their necks and arms are generally 
examined to see if they have been much whipped. 

I asked him how such an advertisement would affect the standing 
of Mr. Nicoll in Mobile. "Not at all," said he, "or he would'nt 
have published it. It would affect him no more than a man's adver- 
tising a barrel of apples for sale in New-York." 
[From a Tennessee paper.] 

WAS committed to Jail, a negro boy who calls his name John. 
Said negro is about 22 years old, had on, when brouirht to Jail, 
a LARGE NECK IRON, with a HUGE PAIR OF HORNS, and 
a LARGE BAR OR BAND OF IRON on his left lee. 

The OWNER of this PROPERTY, is requested to comply with the 
law and take him out of Jail. H. GRIDLEY, Shff. July 11, 1834. 

When we are met by the objection that these are single cases, 
and probably rare, we reply : They are advertised in face of a com- 
mumty, and pass without rebuke. If such things were uncommon, 



10 CAN SLAVES FEEL 7 

they would excite remark. If they were abhorred by the people, 
they would enkindle public indignation. Do you ask if there is no 
indignation aroused ? Read the following as one reply : 
$25 Reward. 

R ANA WAY from the plantation of A. H. SEVIER, in Chicot 
county, (Arkansas,) BOB a slave, has a scar across his breast, 
ANOTHER ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HIS HEAD, — his BACK is much SCAR- 
RED with the WHIP. E. H. WALDEN, Agent. 

Lake Port, Sept. 26, 1836. [Vick&burg Register, Oct. 6, 1836. 

A. n. Sevier, of whose care this "working man" has so many 
marks, has been recently chosen to one of the highest offices m 
the gift of his fellow-citizens. In the United States Senate he helps 
make laws for the government of northern laborers. 

The following barbarous announcement appeared in a southern 
paper about three years ago. Would it not make heathens blush 1 

FOR SALE, a valuab e negro woman, with OR WITHOUT A 
CHILD SIX MONTHS OLD. 

But do the slaves feel such separations as keenly as we .should ? 
Let tacts answer. I can quote but few out of the great multitude. 

A gentleman, who had resided much in slave states, traveled in 
North Carolina some years ago, when he saw a woman following a 
drove in which were her two children who had been taken from her. 
She seemed so deeply agitated, that he thought she was crazy. 
She cried out, " They've gone I they've gone ! ! Master w^uld sell 
them. I told him I couldn't live without my children. I tried to 
make him sell me too, but he beat me and drove me off. I got 
away and followed after them, and the driver whipped me back : 
and I never shall see my children again." The poor creature 
shrieked and tossed her arms around her M^ith maniac wildness, and 
beat her bosom and cast dust into the air. "At the last glimpse I 
had of her," said the eye witness, "she was nearly a quarter of a 
mile from us, still throwing handfuls of sand around her with the 
same phrenzied air." The witness of this scene is now in N.York, 
and he says he never shall forget the horrid spectacle. 

The Maryville (Tenn.) Intelligencer, of March 12, 1834, says : 
" Slaves have feeling, intense feeling, and many of those who are 
sold to slave-traders would prefer death to their present lot." 

Mothers, who feel for their children more than for themselves, 
have often killed them to save them from the horrors of slavery. 

The St. Louis (Mo.) Republican mentions the case of a woman 
sold from her husband near that city, in 1834, and says : " Her 
husband seemed absolutely stunned by this most unexpected blow. 
He followed his poor wife to town, to take a last look and bid a last 
adieu. He said, ' I will get ray master to sell me to the driver and 
go with my poor wife. My days will not be long on earth, and this, 
I hope, will shorten them.' " 

These heart-rending separations occur daily. 

Prof Andrews, of Boston, an opposer of the abolitionists, say.s 
he asked a slave-trader, whom he met near Washington City, if he 
often bought the wife without the husband ? " Yes, very often, 
and FREQUENTLY, too, they sell me the mother while they keep 



EFFECT OF SLAVKBY ON SLAVEHOLDEES. 11 

the. children. I have OFTEN known them take away the INFANT 
from the MOTHER'S BREAST, and keep it, while they sold her." 
— AndrexD^s on Slavery and the Slave Trade, p. 147. 

In the year 1835, the Synod of Kentucky published an Address 
to the Presbyterians of that State who hold slaves. They would, of 
course, be very careful to state no more than the truth. After 
saying, that the members of a slave family may be forcibly separat- 
ed, they say the masters often practice what the law allows. — 
'* Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, 
are torn asunder and permitted to see each other no more. These 
acts are DAILY occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and 
the agony, often witnessed on such occasions, proclaim, with a 
trumpet tongue, the iniquity of our system. There is not a neigh, 
borhood where these heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There 
is not a village or road that does not behold the sad procession of 
manacled outcasts, whose mournful countenances tell that they are 
exiled, by force, from all that their hearts hold dear." 

How little of the truth we can ever know till the slave is permit, 
ted to speak, may be judged from the following language of Judge 
Ruffin, of N.^C. : 

"The slave, to remain a slave, must feel that there is no appeal 
FROM HIS MASTER. No man can anticipate the provocations which the 
s^lave would ijivr, nor the consequent wrath of the master, prompting 
him to BLOODY VENGEANCE on the turbulent traitor, avengeance 
generally practiced v.'ith impunity by reason of its privacy." — See 
Wheeler' s La 10 of Slavery.^ p. 247. 

While these facts stir you up to labor for the slave, remember 
that your sympathies should be not less aroused for the masters. 
They are " nursed, educated and daily exercised in tyranny,"^ and 
grow up the victims of violent passions which rob them of peace. 

The history of Mrs. James M. Nelson, sister of Governor Trim- 
ble of Ohio, is an impressive illustration of the withering effects of 
slavery on the heart. She was born in Virginia, but her parenis 
moved to Ohio while she was an infant. When she was fifteen 
years old, as Ohio was then new, she was sent to her uncle's in 
Virginia to go to school. She then first saw slavery. The slaves in 
her uncle's family were treated better than mostothers in the neighbor- 
hood. Yet unused us she was to such sights, the constant nameless 
indignities and insults she saw them suffer, afibcted her so, that before 
she i.ad been there two hours, she sought where to weep and went into 
b.er chamberand wept there. Fur some weeks, she retired often to weep 
alone. She wrote to her mother begging the privilege of going home, 
and telling her it would break her heart to stay where human beings 
were thus treated. As the mails went slow, it was long before she 
received the answer, which gave her leave to return directly. As she 
had then become familiar with slavery, it had almost ceased to affect 
her, and she concluded to stay. She soon became ashamed of her ten- 
der feelings, and could even do^ without reflection, the very things, the 
i-ight of which had so affected her. I have these facts as she stated 
them to a friend some years ago. 

The Kentucky Synod in the address above quoted, speak of the indo- 
lence, tyranny, and disregard of the rights of others, which are devel- 

* JefTerson. 



12 HOW CAN WE ABOLISH SLAVERY? 

oped, cultivated and nurtured, in the slaveholders, and say they can al- 
most adopt the opinion that '' slavery is worse for the master than for 
the slave." 

In January, 1832, Mr. Samuel M'D. Moore, in the "Virginia House of 
Delegates, spoke zealously of the pernicious effects of slavery on the 
slaveholders. He says, "The dissolute habits of a large number of our 
fellow-ci'izens are too notorious to be denied, and the cause of it is too 
obvious to be disputed. Many, too proud to till the earth, are wasting 
their estates, and raising their families in habits of idleness and extrava- 
gance. Many young men attempt to force themselves into professions 
already crowded to excess, and many of these resort to intemperance 
to drown reflection, when want of success has driven them to despair. 
In that part of the state below tide-water, the whole face of the country 
wears an appearance of almost utter desolation." 

The dread of insurrection fills many of the slaveholders with con- 
stant apprehension and alarm. But often, when men cry, Peace and 
safety, then sudden destruction cometh. T. R. Gray, of Va., in his 
preface to Nat Turner's confession, says: "Every thing upon the 
surface of society wore a calm and peaceful aspect, — not one note 
of preparation was heard to warn the devoted inhabitants of wo 
and death." Then, he says, the leader of the insurrection *' was 
revolving schemes of indiscriminate massacre to the whites, — 
schemes fearfully executed, as his band proceeded on their deso. 
lating march. Men, women and children, from hoary age to help- 
less infancy, were involved in the same cruel fate. Many a mother, 
as she presses her infant darling to her bosom, will shudder at the 
recollection of Nat Turner." This insurrection took place August 
23, 1831, at Southampton county, Virginia. During the following 
year, the whites in the slave states suffered scarcely less than their 
lacerated victims. Excitement and alarm prevailed. A Baptist 
minister, a native of Virginia where he then lived, said that whole 
counties were often panic-stricken by some one calling hogs in the 
woods, or by some other equally harmless noise. Alarm being 
given, mothers snatched their children and ran from their houses, 
fathering together in public places, surrounded by their husbands 
and sons. The panic spread from house to house, and lasted for 
days, and when the truth was known, it could not quiet the fears of 
women and children. They went home with palpitating hearts. — 
Rumors of insurrection were frequent in nearly all the slave states. 

Why does slavery continue to curse the slave and afflict the 
master, and disgrace and endanger the nation ? 

Because it is the people's will. 

How is that will to be changed ? 

By appeals to the conscience and understanding. 

We are, first, to do all in our power to diffuse a correct senti- 
ment in the circles in which we move ; and, secondly, to supply the 
American A. S. Society with the means of arousing the nation to 
a sense of our guilt and danger. 

They are trying to do this, by publications and living agents. — 
They need money. They are striving to embody the abolitionism 
of the nation in Cent-a-week Societies. If this is thoroughly done, 
it will insure them twice as much, yearly, as they have ever yet 
received. They look to YOU for help. Shall they look in vain? 



Rules for the Treasurers and Collectors. 

1. The collectors shall be females exclusively. 

2. They may collect of any body who will give their 
names as regular contributors, and receive donations from 
any others. 

3. Where it is convenient, the collectors in one society 
should belong to the same sunday school, church, or con- 
gregation, that the meeting may be notified and attended 
with less trouble. 

4. Only 52 cents a year are to be received on this sys- 
tem. If any one pays more, (as it is hoped many will,) 
let the excess be given separately to the treasurer, and 
acknowledged with the other donations. 

5. The collectors will receive money weekly, unless 
paid in advance for two weeks or more. 

6. The treasurer will call a meeting of collectors at the 
close of each month. At these meetings the collectors 
will pay over as many cents for each contributor, as there 
have been Saturdays in the month. 

7. The treasurer will forward this money, with a 
monthly report, to the General Agent in New- York. 

EXPLANATION OF THE COLLECTOR'S CARD. 

The first two columns are for the names and residences 
of contributors. In the remaining 12 columns the collec- 
tor will keep an account of the money paid by each con- 
tributor, thus : 



Contribu tora | Resideace | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 

Mftry Eaton, | 9, State st. | : : | : : | .". | : : | : : | .'. | : : | : : | .*. | : : | : : | .•; 

The figures stand for the months. A dot credits the 
payment of one cent. When there are 5 Saturdays in a 
month, make 5 dots in the square for that month. 

Names should be written with ink ; credits should be 
in pencil, and effaced when the card is full. The card 
may thus be used till it is worn out. 

SUGGESTIONS TO COLLECTORS. 

1. Let your card remind you that you are to f.p«ak for 
the dumb, and work for the bound. 

2. Try to enlist new collectors. 

3. Send to the General Agent, the names of those who 
will assist in forming new societies in other neighborhoods. 

4. Do not let your contributors get in arrears. 

TO THE TREASURERS. 

1 . If any collector is absent from the monthly meeting, 







see her as soon as possible and get the money slie lia:=; 
collected. 

2. Make a monthly report to the General Agent, stating 
deaniteiy, the whole No. of collectors, and the whole No. 
of contributors, and the largest No. of contributors ob- 
tained by any orie collector. 

Similar Societies have done much for benevolent objects 
m Great Britain. At least $400,009 have been raised by 
them annupJly in England alone. It is almost a matter of 
course, in religious families, to enter the name of each 
child, as a contributor, from its birth. There each collec- 
tor is required to procure six contributors. Many obtain 
from one to two hundred. 'J'he associations are usually 
connected with a church, and have their meetings in some 
room connected with it. 

Extracts from the Constitution of the Am. A. S. Society. 

Whereas slavery is contrary to the principles of natural justice, of our 
republican forn? of government, and of the Christian religion, and is de- 
structive of the prosperity of the CLUiutry,, while it is endangering t^ie 
peace, union and liberties of the States ; and whereas we believe it the 
dury ar:d iaer^stof the inastcrs, immed'ately to emancipate their Blavef, 
and that no scheme of expatriation, either voluntary or by compulsion, 
can remove this great and increasing evil ; and whereas we believe that 
tt is practicah'e, by appeals to the consciences, hearts, and interests of 
iho people, to awaken a public sentiment throughout the nation, that 
will be epno?ed to the continuance of slavery in any part of t"he repubhc, 
and by efi'ecting the speedy abo'ition of slavery, prevent a general con- 
vulsion ; and whereas we believe we owe it to the oppressed, to our fel- 
low-citizens who hold slaves, to our whole country, to posterity, and io 
Grd, to do all that is lawfully in our power tobrins: about the cxfincticn 
<»r slavery, we do hereby agree, with a pra- eifui reliance on the Divir.o 
aid, to form ourselves into a society, to be governed by the following 
CONSTlTUTIOxN. 

Art. I. This Society shall bs called the Amebican Anti-Slayesy 

OOCXETV. 

Art. II. The object of this Society is the eniire abolition of siaverv 
la the United Slates. While it admits that each srate in which elavcry 
exists, ha.s, by the Consiitution of the United States, the exclusive right 
to legislate in re.ard to its aboli ion in said state, it shall aim to con- 
vince all cur fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to their under- 
standings and consciences, that s'aveholriing is a heinous crime in the 
sight of God, and that thedutv, safety, and best interests of all con- 
cerned, require its immediate abarK^r.vient, without expatriation. The 
Society will also endeavor, in a constitutional way, to influence Con- 
gress to put an end to the do.mestic alave-irsd", and to abolish siovery 
in all those pojticns of our comnion country which come under its con- 
trol, especia'iy in the District of Columbia, — and likewise to prevent the 
extension of it to any state that may be hereafter admitted to the union. 

Art. III. This Socif-^y shall aim to clrvate the charac er and con- 
dition of the psopie of color, bv encouraging their inteilectual, mora!, 
and religious improvemie^, «|d b^removmg pubhc prejudice, that thus 
they may, accoi^inff tc^fciifcint^lecJual avd moral worth, share an 
equahty wi^ttli^pflrevni TTvil and religious privileges; but this So- 
ciety will nai^, m any way, countenance '• " ^^--r-^^^^s^A in viii;.^icatin,g 
their rights b)»-resorting to physical force. 



.^".'^ 



.v^ 



, • " /. 



OOBBS BROS. 

LIBRARY BINDINQ 

NOV 81 

ST. AUGUSTINE 
FLA. 

32084 



^^^X. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

I! mil mil III! Hill 



i iimiiilililll 

011 899 743 8 



